The Fake Lonnie Finch

I don't know that he should have been "allowed" to come here, but a call to explain would have be appropriate. I mean, it's obvious Dodge and Dickey run different styles of offense. Dodge could have called the kid at least to say, "Hey, sorry, we're going in another direction" instead of leaving him and coach Spradlin hanging. Not a smart move.

There are a ton of good players that come out of that area of West Texas. In fact, we've had good players from West Texas in the past. Dodge could have at least called the kid and leveled with him. It's just a phone call. It's not good to have any negative press from coaches, especially from coaches who know the game from both sides like Spradlin.

We only got one player from the Dallas Morning New Area Top 100 - Jordan Scoggins; we got none from their State Top 100. Where the DMN Area Top 100 Signed (Note - three didn't sign, but aren't listing us as options either): SMU 10 Baylor 10 TCU 9 Texas 6 Okla State 6 Arkansas 5 Rice 4 Houston 3 Nebraska 3 Oklahoma 3 Texas A&M 3 Missouri 3 Miami 2 Tulsa 2 UTEP 2 Kansas St 2 Kansas 2 Tex Tech 2 Navarro 2 California 1 Tulane 1 Missouri St 1 Emporia St 1 UNT 1 Trinity Vall 1 BYU 1 Iowa State 1 Utah State 1 Utah 1 Arizona 1 Colo State 1 Texas St 1 UL-Monroe 1 UL-Lafayet 1 Arizona St 1 LSU 1 Minnesota 1

Good point.

He may as well call him. The guy's dad said today that he son would be signing with anyone tomorrow and that they just sent film to Michigan State on Monday. The only other schools mentioned in the article were Baylor and Louisiana Tech. Surely if Baylor and Louisiana Tech are getting serious consideration from this kid, we could get some. Also, his dad said he'd only be at 90% this fall due to the shoulder surgery last month. He mentioned grayshirting somewhere (going to school for a semester somewhere, but not joining the team or having a scholarship yet) and beginning his eligibility in 2008. So, there's really no reason we shouldn't at least call. If he sign with Baylor or La. Tech...sad.

Best prep RB in Texas? Lennon Creer, hands down. Then, maybe, Justin Sturns, Joseph Reese, or Foswhitt Whittaker.

John Brantley is committed to Florida, not Texas. He switched back in December.

It's far from Dickey's first attempt at any 100 list - in Dallas, around Texas, or elsewhere: Dallas Morning News State Top 100 signees Jamario Thomas Jonas Buckles Brandon Kennedy Randy Gardner Taylor Casey Dallas Morning News Area Top 100 signees Colt Mahan Daniel Meager Jason May Kevin Howard Nick Zuniga Fort Worth Star Telegram Area Top 75 Colt Mahan Nick Zuniga Fort Worth Star Telegram State Top 100 Jamario Thomas Jonas Buckles Houston Chronicle State Top 100 Jamario Thomas Jonas Buckles Randy Gardner Lubbock Avalanche Journal State Top 100 Jamario Thomas Waco Herald Tribune State Top 100 Jonas Buckles Austin American Statesman Fab 55 Jamario Thomas Jonas Buckles Oklahoma Fab 50 Jeremy Brown Patrick Cobbs Topeka Capital Journal State Top 11 Adam Venegas Florida Times Union Super 24 Shawn Early NJCAA All-American Michael Pruitt This is information is easily gleaned from the past three rosters. I have neither the time nor inclination to look up the stuff from 1998 to 2001 - e.i., the recruits who built the core of the first bowl teams - but I'm sure it's more of the same. Nearly everyone on the rosters of all of Dickey's squads were, at minimum, All-District or All-State; many were the MVPs or Players of the Year for their district or county. There were tons of those that developed into All-SBC player under Dickey and his staff - even though they weren't on anybody's Top 100 list: Craig Jones, Cody Spencer, Markeith Knowlton, Brad Kadlubar, Andy Blout, Jamel Branch, Nick Bazaldua, Kevin Galbraith, Brad Kassell, Don McGee, Jeff Muenchow, etc., etc., etc. Many of you out there have lost your minds simply because we've had two bad years. Darrell Dickey and his staff recruited well throughout Texas, picking up excellent players from all over - Houston area, DFW , San Antonio/Austin area, West Texas, as well as players from Florida, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma...and Idaho. Feeling bad about the last two years is understandable. But, for you to keep lying about Darrell Dickey and his recruiting is just pathetic. I suggested this during the coaching search, and will say it again - many of you honestly need to step away from the message board for a couple of weeks and regain your perspective. Your blind hatred of a man who gave us the best four season run in the history of the school is absurd at best, and childish at worst. Grow up and be thankful you did have bowl games to go to, championships to celebrate, and all-conference players to cheer for years. Seriously.

Hmm. There were 31 players from the DFW area on our roster this year. So, it's the first time who's doing what?

Good post, gangrene. However, I think you'll find that USU was already recruiting Texas before they hired Dickey. Their head coach is a former Oklahoma State player and assistant coach who grew up in Texas. Secondary coach Shaun Johnson is from Bryan. Their OL coach is from Oklahoma and also played as Oklahoma State. So, USU had coaches familiar with the Texas prep scene for years. Dickey helps, of course. But, USU had already planted the seeds in Texas a couple of seasons ago. They've had some success here, and Dickey will help them continue it.

Folks, These are contracts - nothing more, nothing less. There are stipulations to every contract about who gets what depending on who breaks it before it ends. Rice won't be paying Graham for his decision to bolt. Nobody offers that kind of deal. We pay Dickey because he still had a contract and we decided not to honor it. No big deal. We really didn't have the money to make that decision, but our AD nagged the board and new, uninformed president into it anyway. So, we pay two head coaches for a season or two. OU was still paying Gary Gibbs and John Blake the first couple of seasons Bob Stoops was on their sideline. Who cares? Gibbs stayed out of coaching until OU stopped paying him, then he jumped back in. Nice little vacation courtesy of the OU athletic department. Same with Blake. The year OU finally payed off his contract, he got a job with Mississippi State. Tidy little vacation for him as well. Solich took a year off after Nebraska cut him loose before he jumped back in. Dickey will do the same. It doesn't matter. Both parties bargain for what they get. All coaches' contracts at the Division I-A level are full of performance-based stipulations. But, even if the coach hits those levels, they can be cut loose. Also, they can forego and jump to a bigger deal if they so choose. To sit around and pretend that, after one season, Todd Graham owes anybody anything is absurd. Todd Graham owes him and his family what all other coaches owe themselves and their families - the best deal out there. The schools know that going into the coach-signing game. Rice is a school that clings to I-A existence anyway. As few butts as they put in the seats, they ought to keep their mouths shut and be grateful to be in the conference they are in. Give the "Rice got screwed" line a break. If Rice wanted to be a big boy, they'd throw big boy money at a coach. Rice is what it is...an engineering school that used to be in a conference with big boys Texas, A&M, and Arkansas before the TV Deal/Super Conference/BCS Era struck. Screw 'em. We've got enough on our own platter in trying to get 20k+ in the stands consistently and getting people to help chip in for a new stadium to worry about what happens down at Rice. If Rice is "screwed", so be it. Maybe they'll leave I-A altogether and give us a better shot at getting out of the Sun Belt. Honestly, you guys, think bigger.

Betrayal? Give me a break. A football coach can be fired at any time, for any reason. There is no lifetime guarantee given to him by a school. So, to act sanctimonious when one coach leaves a school is hypocritical. No school promises to take care of a guy's family for life. Coaches get too much credit for winning and too much blame for losing. If a guy gets a better chance to take care of his family, no one should begrudge him - least of all fans, whose fickleness would have him canned in three seasons or less, if they didn't like his results. Graham went to college in Oklahoma and was a former TU assistant, so him going to Tulsa isn't some "out of the blue" proposition. Some of you need to step away from the sports boards and collegiate athletics for a month or so and regain your grip on reality. And, I mean, seriously.

No. Because Nate is (1) a convicted felon, and (2) publicly know to be someone who has for many years consciously made frivolous statements, it would be difficult to take anything he says and make it credible in a court of law.

Yes, but some can't be led halfway, they must be led all the way. And still, some you lead to water still will not drink it.

But, what if you're drunk in Hollywood, pulled over by the cops, and start to rant and rave about certain religious groups...then what of the English seeing them do it?

We've landed on the moon?!?!

Yes, for the home team.

You must be kidding. right? I went to law school with a guy who played LB at UNLV in the mid-90s. He said that after wins they'd mysteriously have cash of the C-note variety show up in their lockers. Folks, these were not UNLV teams that were competitive. It happens, and it happens everywhere. People just aren't as brazen about it these days as they were at SMU in the late 70s/early 80s with Eric Dickerson orally committing to OU, accepting a corvette from an A&M alum, then signing with SMU. If you think it doesn't happen to some degree at schools at all levels you're kidding yourself. I roomed with a guy in college whose dad played and coached and whose brother played at two different SEC schools. His dad also coached at a Division II school here in Texas after 16 years as an assistant at the SEC school. He told me that even at the Division II school coaches and alum made sure players were taken care of, and not just with money, but with little things that are supposed to be NCAA violations - allowing players to use the coaches' office phones to make long distance calls home, coaches/alums buying plane tickets for players to go back home during breaks who otherwise couldn't have afforded it, local car dealers allowing players to "test drive" cars, etc. And, it goes beyond football. I went to law school at a university know for its basketball prowess. All of the starting players were driving new cars (SUVs) from a certain dealership in town. Coincidence? Yeah, sure. I think it's funny when fans of any school start with the "we don't do that" bullcrap. You have no idea what's going on with 100+ football players and 250+ athletes on a major college campus, or even a little college campus. You think you do, but you don't. The coaches still don't even know. It's impossible for them to know what is going on in the city with the alums and businesses, not to mention what alums and businesses back in Johnny 5-Star's hometown might be giving him. Supposedly, you can't so much as give a kid a sandwich if you've ever purchased a ticket to a school's athletic event. Believe me, there are guys eating like kings on and off campus and back home on the alums dime at all levels of play. Those of you who say it doesn't happen anymore are tilting at windmills. It's happening today, probably as we speak. At 10:35, phone calls for lunch are already being made. Hear me now, believe me later...but, don't kid yourselves.

Newflash - OU was 6-0 without Peterson in 2006 and averaged 185+ yards rushing per game; with Peterson, they were 5-3 and averaged about 170 per game rushing. When Peterson was in the game, teams simply keyed on him, OU was unable to run consistently, leaving them without a credible play action passing game. With Peterson out, the play action game opened up and the QB-turned-WR-turned-QB Thompson mysteriously began to pass more efficiently. Football is a team game, not a one player game. OU returns four of five starting OLs, all starting receivers and tight ends, both fullbacks who rotated as starters, as well as the trio of running backs who outrushed Adrian Peterson while he was out. So, in reality, they lose only two starters. One other OL started half the game last year, but was injured half way through the season. So, the fifth man in the line next year won't be a true freshman or an inexperienced uperclassman. It'll be a guy with six collegiate starts under his belt, including tough road games at Oregon and Dallas against UT. The only real loss, then, for OU is the QB Thompson, and that hasn't been a problem during the Stoops Era at OU. Consider, OU has won conference titles with four different QBs during the Stoops Era, so I wouldn't get too excited about them having to break another one in. The only failure at QB for Stoops was Bomar. So, of five starters during the Stoops Era, four have been highly successful. The 80% starting QBs leading the team to conference titles at OU under Stoops is just a shade under his 82% winning percentage as a coach.

Good point. A&M stole that guy. Why he wasn't hired by a more traditional basketball school before A&M came calling was always a mystery to me.

88, This is a point I've made several times in the past. All it did was cause RV's board spy to accuse me of being Kenny Evans. Of course, in offering a $1,000 per accuser wager on whether or not I was Kenny Evans, the spy stopped shadowing my posts. Rather than Boise, I've always used Kansas State as my example of a team that rebuilt by scheduling winnable games. But, the Boise comparison is also good. It doesn't happen overnight. I took Bill Snyder three season to produce his first winning squad, five years to begin to win consistently. He began by scheduling I-AAs from all over - Indiana State, Northern Iowa, Western Kentucky, Montana, Idaho State. After K-State began to win those, he moved on to scheduling more mid-majors - Cinncinati, Arkon, Ohio, Bowling Green, etc. By 2000, he was schduling the likes of Iowa, USC, and Cal - and beating them. In 2001 and 2002, K-State beat Southern Cal. Snyder grew the program from consecutive zero win seasons in 1987 and 1988 to a team that consistently won bowl games as well as Big 12 North Division titles. He ultimately delivered a Big 12 title. What he did works. He's proved it. Boise State has now proved it. We started to go down the path the past couple of years with home and homes with Tulsa and playing Akron this season. We need those games along with at least one I-AA game to open the season winning. When you schedule the likes of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, etc. to begin a season, to don't give your squad a chance to develop what they've practiced in the fall and spring. You simply send them out to be pulverized and wait for the SBC schedule to start before you can really compete with what you practice. It's a stupid way to do things, but one we're apparently willing to continue. KSU and Boise got good because they were able to taste success from game one of each season. The spring and fall practices meant something. Victories were the reward for the off-season work. It built winning mindsets that allowed both programs to climb the ladder.

Again, Malzhan did not install his offense at Arkansas. He kept Arkansas run-based. Also, Malzhan is one coach at Arkansas. None of the other nine coaches came out of the high school ranks. All had either exclusive NFL and college experience. Aside from Malzhan, only one other Razorback assistant ever coached in high school - and that guy was only a prep coach for one year, 23 years ago. Nothing about Arkansas is similar to what is about to happen here. Not even close. The Razorbacks have a staff full of coaches with decades of Division I-A and NFL experience. We're apparently combing DFW high schools for a coaching staff. It may be exciting to some, but the result could be really ugly come September 1 in Norman. Also, as much as some of you still want to pin Arkansas' success on Malzhan, you should note that he's not coming up with the game plans all by himself. Arkansas, like many colleges these days, has a run game coordinator and a pass game coordinator in addition to the offensive coordinator. So, there's not just one guy making the offensive game plan. Their run game coordinator has 22 years of college coaching experience; the pass game coordinator came to Arkansas this year after seven seasons as an NFL assistant. So, it's not as if Houston Nutt simply hired a high school coach and turned the keys over to him on the offense, as some of you mistakenly believe. We, on the otherhand, look as though we're going to turn the entire thing over to high school coaches, the head guy with a couple of years of I-AA experience from 12 years ago. Sorry, but some of us won't believe it's a good deal until we see good results. Personally, I think we'll be no different than we were with Darrell Dickey - getting stomped in OOC games, competing well enough against the Sun Belt competition to win some SBC titles. The upside for the athletic department is that they got Dodge for a couple of thousand dollars less than they were paying Dickey.

That's not the point. The point, made in answer to one specific post that tried use Arkansas as an example or what is in store for us next year, is that the Razorbacks' new offensive coordinator didn't overhaul the offense, he merely tweaked it. Like before, Arkansas' offense is still run-heavy. That made some of the Springdale players and their parents mad because he ran a spread offense as a prep coach and they thought he'd do the same in Fayetteville. The overarching point, in response to shaft, was that it should be concerning that we face the real possibility of having no assistants with college coaching experience next season. He was correct to be concerned about the hiring of a high school coach. Some people are excited to be getting a staff full of high school coaches at UNT, others are not. Shaft is not. Neither am I. We hope Dodge has sense enough to have a few guys on the staff with some Division I-A college coaching experience.

I guess you haven't been paying attention to what's been happening in Fayetteville lately. Since you haven't here's the skinny: Things turn ugly when parents Hog attention JEFF KIDD, The Island Packet Published Sunday, December 17, 2006 These will not be glad tidings to anyone who has suffered the jackass in the adjacent bleacher seat and his rants that the coach is misusing his son. Coaches accosted after the game by said jackass will like this news even less. Just the same, it must be delivered: The legion of narcissistic, meddling parents grows more ubiquitous and sophisticated every day. An insidious swarm once confined to the high school and recreation field has spread to the college stadium. And it has learned manners. Earlier this week, the parents of three Arkansas football freshmen -- quarterback Mitch Mustain, tight end Ben Cleveland and receiver Damian Williams -- met with Razorbacks athletics director Frank Broyles, ostensibly to express "concerns" about the direction of the school's football team. Even casual followers of the college game will find their concerns puzzling, inasmuch as the Razorbacks are 10-3, champions of the Southeastern Conference's Western Division, set for a New Year's Day bowl and powered by a pair of 1,000-yard rushers, including Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden. Sounds as if Arkansas travels an upward trajectory. But look a bit deeper and you find the crux of the "concerns" (more accurately be described as "complaints") is not so much the direction the Razorbacks travel; rather, it's that they travel by ground and not by air. A year ago, Razorback coach Houston Nutt was under fire after the program's second consecutive losing season. Nutt's job security demanded he relinquish play-calling duties, diversify his run-oriented attack and hire an offensive coordinator for the first time in his eight-year tenure in Fayetteville. Meanwhile, Mustain, Cleveland and Williams were leading Arkansas' Springdale High School to a Class 5-A state championship, and Mustain was earning distinction as Parade Magazine's national player of the year. The quarterback also was entertaining offers from other schools after initially making a verbal commitment to Arkansas. Nutt firmed up two tenuous situations with one hire. He brought aboard as offensive coordinator Springdale head coach Gus Malzahn, renowned in national coaching circles for his no-huddle, pass-oriented spread offense. This not only infused the Razorback scheme with creativity, it secured key Springdale recruits -- Mustain reaffirmed his commitment to Arkansas; Cleveland and Williams reneged on Florida to join him there; and receiver Andrew Norman, a fourth teammate apparently not involved in the current imbroglio, also signed with the Razorbacks. By most measures, this season was a smashing success for the Springdale contingent. Malzahn didn't try to foist a high school offense upon a team that plays against arguably the best-coached, most athletic competition in college football. He diversified the Razorback packages but built around the ample talents of McFadden and running back Felix Jones. Even so, Williams caught 19 passes for 235 yards, and Cleveland caught 11 for 98 yards. Both were named to the All-Southeastern Conference freshman team. Mustain is the team's leading passer and started eight games -- all wins -- before being replaced late in the season by Casey Dick. Not good enough, Cleveland's father said. "Our boys are used to catching 60 passes a year," Rick Cleveland told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "They want to go to a college where they get the same opportunity." The statement is plenty selfish and even more ill-informed. For if the goal were to catch 60 passes (as opposed to winning 10 football games), Ben would have been better served in some backwater like Hawaii, New Mexico State or Baylor. After all: • Only one player in Arkansas' history has ever caught more than 60 passes in a season. • Even Malzahn's arrival wasn't likely to change that. Since 2002, only 13 receivers in the entire 12-team Southeastern Conference have caught 60 passes in a season. Only two were freshmen. None were tight ends. • Of the eight teams playing in BCS bowls this season, only two rank in the top 50 in pass attempts. Four, however, rank in the top 10 in rushing attempts. Of course, Cleveland's inability to acknowledge that the universe -- not even the Razorback universe -- revolves around Springdale is a garden-variety failing of today's over-involved, under-studied parent. More distressing is the Arkansas cabal's veneer of civility. Cleveland described the meeting with Broyles as "non-confrontational." Mustain's mother, Beck Campbell, said in a statement, "It was agreed by all parties involved that the head coach has the valid right to determine the direction of the program and the manner in which the team would develop." The jackasses are trimming their ears and muffling their brays. These are the statements of people who have stopped to consider how their meddling would be portrayed in the media. These are statements crafted by the passive-aggressive, albeit ham-handedly, to sound levelheaded. But reason strips away the veneer. You don't have to be confrontational to be invidious. And if the parents truly respected Nutt's right to determine the Razorback offense, they would have taken their "concerns" to him, not his boss. What happens next remains to be seen. Nutt said late this week that he believes Mustain and Cleveland are committed to the program but that Williams likely will transfer. Campbell claimed in her statement that Mustain "loves his teammates, and he feels a deep sense of regret and sadness that his presence on this team has created a division in a state he loves." If this is true, it's difficult to say which is more appalling -- that Campbell has raised so self-absorbed a child or that she doesn't understand it isn't the quarterback's presence that creates a division. It is her presence in Broyles' office.

The problem you have shouldn't be so much that people are excited, but that when the season begins, the reality will hit that we have a sideline full of high school coaches trying to match X's and O's with experienced D-I coaches who have better athletes. It could be pretty ugly early on, especially against OU and Arkansas with as many players as they each have returning. The upshot is that the Sun Belt Conference isn't difficult to win. Dodge and the high school assistants can go 1-3 or 0-4 against the OOC schedule and still win the Sun Belt - just like Dickey did. In the end, then, 2007 should be more or less the same as 2001-2004.